What Children’s Books Do You Give?

What gift do you give to the outgoing president of a university? Recently, the seven chairs of Duke’s Academic Council decided to give retiring President Richard Brodhead children’s books, knowing he’s looking forward to spending more time with his young grandchild. Unsurprisingly, the selected books are very old, except for one (see DukeToday to find out which faculty member gave which one and why):

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (1941)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do you See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle (1967)

Frederick by Leo Lionni (1967)

Freight Train by Donald Crews (1978)

The Complete Book of Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker(1920)

Jessica’s X-Ray by Pat Zonta (2002)

As is often the case with classics, none of the books noticeably features characters from diverse backgrounds, though at least one is authored/illustrated by a person of color.

In general, I like these books–I’ve read all of them except The Complete Book of Flower Fairies—but none of them are among the books I’ve given to the young children in my life over the years (or their parents and grandparents).

My go-to list of children’s books for gifts includes (among other books):

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